Cyber-bullying complaints over social media attacks on public servants

ANGRY taxpayers, welfare recipients and warring parents are using social media to vent their rage at public servants, triggering 1685 cyber-bullying complaints by federal bureaucrats.

And one-in-six federal public servants claimed to have been harrassed or bullied in one form or another in the past 12 months, data from the Australian Public Service Commission reveals.

The APC warns of an "emerging trend" of frustrated clients attacking public servants using social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

"In recent months the Commission has been approached by several (public service) agencies seeking advice in circumstances where employees have been the target of adverse comments by clients on social media websites," the APC says in its latest "State of the Service" report.

"In some of these cases employees were abused online by clients dissatisfied with their agency's services.

"However, the statements made tended to be of a highly personal nature."

The report notes that abuse on Twitter can have a "devastating impact" on the target.

One per cent of the 168,580 public servants said they had been cyber-bullied.

APC spokeswoman Clare Page said the commission did not have records of any compensation claims lodged for cyber-bullying.

She said public servants had the right to take private legal action for defamation.

But the Attorney-General's Department's legal guidelines prohibit paying the legal costs of public servants who want to sue for defamation.

The policy states that any funding of defamation proceedings "could give rise to a public perception that the Government was seeking to prevent legitimate criticism".

Community and Public Sector Union assistant national secretary Louise Persse warned that members of the public were "taking out their frustration on staff" over issues ranging from tax to child-support assessments, welfare payments and Medicare refunds.

Ms Persse called on the Federal Government to hire more staff, as cutbacks had created service delays in agencies including Centrelink and Medicare.

"Clients are taking out their frustration on staff because they are having to wait longer to be seen, or to get through to someone on the phone," she said.

"Putting more staff back on could help alleviate the rise in aggression."

The APC report shows that 17 per cent of public servants - or 28,680 people - said they had been harrassed or bullied in some way, verbal abuse accounting for 55 per cent of complaints. Fellow public servants were chiefly to blame.

News Ltd revealed yesterday that compensation costs for stressed and injured public servants had doubled in a year to nearly $1 billion.

Comcare, the Commonwealth's workplace compensation insurer, has recorded its first loss, a startling $564 million for 2011/12.

Mental health claims made up 8 per cent of Comcare claims during 2011/12, and bullying accounted for nearly half of those.

News.com.au's Privacy Policy includes important information about our collection, use and disclosure of your personal information (including to provide you with targeted content and advertising based on your online activities). It explains that if you do not provide us with information we have requested from you, we may not be able to provide you with the goods and services you require. It also explains how you can access or seek correction of your personal information, how you can complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and how we will deal with a complaint of that nature.

Comments on this story

Rob Posted at 7:34 AM January 15, 2013

Generally public servants don't have much wriggle room in the administration of the legislation of the government of the day. 'These are the rules, apply them' is the rule they have to live by.
Good customer service is hard, whether you are a public servant or a shop assistant. Public servants who are in client service are often dealing with people who are in a very difficult place - relationship breakdown, money troubles etc. So you get abused and threatened regularly. The agency I worked for did resilience testing as part of their selection processes but still had a 48% turnover in a year because most people can't cope with being polite in the face of constant hositlity. It's not an easy job and not one for everybody. I lasted 5 years (and I was a veteran) before switching to IT. Now I just have to deal with recalcitrant computers.

Lee of Brisbane. Posted at 7:25 AM January 15, 2013

I think the thing to remember is public servants are just people doing their jobs. And in a lot of cases its a thankless job, where they have to keep up to date with constantly changing legislation, changes in procedures and processes and they are the front line for implenting the policies. As much as its frustrating for the customer, its just as frustrating for the service delivery person. Public servants are not there to be abused by frustrated customers, they are there to provide a service. Maybe next time you are angry that your welfare has been cut off, instead of abusing the person behind the counter or over the phone,take a moment to remember they have not personally made that decision, they are only following the current procedure.

David Green of Adelaide Posted at 7:16 AM January 15, 2013

If public servants can sue the public. I want to be able to sue the Public Servants. Many I have experienced are downright hopeless.

More in Technology

Online

Gadgets

Gaming

Science

Design

Environment

A NOTE ABOUT RELEVANT ADVERTISING: We collect information about the content (including ads) you use across this site and use it to make both advertising and content more relevant to you on our network and other sites.